The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

A new report by the Congressional Oversight Panel — an independent, yet totally powerless, group appointed by the Senate to review the results of the recent government bailouts — states that we’ll get a few bucks back from the automakers, but shouldn’t count on it to cover our car payments:

Although taxpayers may recover some portion of their investment in Chrysler and GM, it is unlikely they will recover the entire amount. The estimates of loss vary. Treasury estimates that approximately $23 billion of the initial loans made will be subject to “much lower recoveries.” Approximately $5.4 billion of the loans extended to the old Chrysler company are highly unlikely to be recovered. … Because Treasury has not clearly articulated its objectives, it is impossible to know if this prospect, indeed, represents a failure of Treasury’s strategy.

The report makes a number of recommendations to improve the prospects of the automakers (and, you know, get them to pay us back), including the idea that the government should “use its role as a significant shareholder in Chrysler and GM to ensure that these companies fully disclose their financial status and that the compensation of their executives is aligned to clear measures of long-term success.”

The Congressional Oversight Panel has a lot of good ideas, and its head, Harvard’s Elizabeth Warren, has been an active critic of mishandling of taxpayer largess. Despite its impressive COP acronym, however, the panel can’t actually make the government — or the carmakers that we sort of own — do anything. But don’t worry. The agency is empowered to “hold hearings, review official data” and, of course, “write reports.” So, expect a lot more 200-page door-stoppers and C-SPAN bloviating before this whole thing runs its course.